


when rome burns

by soliloquium



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Drama, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Just wanted to put that out there, Love, Mystery, Rival Romance, and theres highkey a potential war in the backround, and theyre both not over it, basically catra is adora's long lost ex, character dev, mmmmmm adora and catra are NOT nice to each other in the beginning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:08:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28118235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soliloquium/pseuds/soliloquium
Summary: when the world ends, it will go with a whimper //When the queen disappears and the clues point towards a neighboring kingdom, the best friend squad are left to deal with the fallout. Adora’s mess is compounded by botched investigations, her almost-but-not-quite relationship with Glimmer and her conniving childhood friend slash ex reappearing.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Kudos: 5





	when rome burns

**Author's Note:**

> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

* * *

"- need to prioritize the investigation."  
  
Clouds began to gather together in the horizon, conspiratorially almost, like dark and ominous specters plotting to blot out the sun forever. Rain was rare in Bright Moon- a Once-In-A-Decade kind of rare. This kind of weather was more Salineas' territory.   
  
"FUCK the investigation. I want to take one of their stupid, sharp icicles and shove it down their THROATS and THEN-"  
  
Already, the could see the trees in the distance darken with damp, turning a shade of green-black rapidly as the clouds began to eat up the light. Thread-thin white line in the distance, encroaching like a small army. Below, she could see the palace servants, guards and gardeners, scrambling away for shelter, splotches of pale lilac. Queen Angela had designed their new uniforms herself, her philosophy that you didn't need to look threatening to be threatening. The pink, sparkly palace they were currently in certainly paid homage to that idea. The pictures of the Snow Palace that Adora had seen in pictures had been menacing, icicles and large, menacing turrets and towers and painfully sharp ice that seemed to claw its way up to the sky.  
  
"Violence should not be the modus operandi, not at first at least, that's just bad governance. Right, Adora-"  
  
Against window and under her finger tips, the rain began to condense. It was weird, how many colours water could present. If you held it up to the sun, it could sparkle like glass. In Salineas, Adora had heard, the sea was a dark black, as incomprehensible as the night sky, and miles and miles beneath the surface of those unruly waves, there were all sorts of shadowy creatures. Tentacled, horned, green, blue, grey, and very very violent.   
  
"Adora."  
  
Adora had only seen rain thrice in her life. None of those moments had been pleasant. She remembered how the sharp golden lines of the street lamp light had blurred with the shape of water, how tears could dissolve and mix...  
  
"ADORA."  
  
Bow's mouth was a straight line, face straight-laced in disappointment. He didn't say anything, was too kind to, which in a lot of ways was worse. Adora felt herself flinching internally with guilt. She was so used to being at the head of table, centerfold of any strategic decisions, the voice of neutral reason against the static. Like she should've been right now. "Sorry- worried about the weather," she glanced around, biting her lip, "Where is Glimmer?"  
  
"Gone."  
  
Adora hurried down the corridor, Bow following, her heart trembling slightly as she thought of how far away her teleport-inclined friend could've gone- but then she was there, hunched over herself, a small, angry ball of pink of purple on the floor.  
  
"Glimmer-" Adora began, trying to articulate.  
  
"My mother is _missing,_ " Glimmer's voice was a scared child, angry and righteously so, "And Bow wants to play diplomat because that's the only thing he's good at! And you're busy staring at space and mom could be _god_ knows where, hurt, alone or maybe even-" Her voice wobbled here, leaf in a storm, threatening to snap off any second.   
  
Adora leaned against the wall, defeated as she slid down and sat next to Glimmer, putting a comforting arm around her that said I'm sorry, "I'll be more more attentive now. We'll find her, okay? Think rationally, as a hostage she's far more valuable alive. We just need to figure who did it."  
  
"The Kingdom of Snow did."  
  
"We _don't_ know that- and we can't afford an unnecessary war right now. Not with what could potentially be the most powerful kingdom right now. And if she's being kept hostage by them? Invading won't help- We won't be able to get in and they'll just use this as an excuse to rally other kingdom against us."  
  
Adora nodded in agreement, slightly doleful. She could understand Glimmers need to be proactive, could see her seams beginning to split apart at the stress.   
  
"Then what _do_ we do."  
  
Adora sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, steadying herself for what was to come. It was pouring outside and she felt like a ship, trying to navigate the dark water of Salineas, "I have an idea..."  
  


* * *

  
  
They set out the next day.   
  
It would’ve been fun, reminiscent of older days where the three would go on inconsequential adventures together, had the queen not been missing and had the crimson waste not been a barren desert wasteland with a scattered pollution of bones and broken weapons half hidden in sand. 

Adora carefully avoided stepping on a particularly prickly looking cactus. 

“If I may reiterate,” Bow began, letting out an _oof_ as he stumbled over the same cactus. 

“You may not,” Glimmer groaned, blasting the cactus out of the way in frustrated anger. 

  
“I personally think that it is a bad idea for all the back up rulers for Brightmoon to go wandering off into a Literal Death Trap when the current leader is missing.”

”Bow, your concerns are duly noted.”

”And dully ignored,” Glimmer added. 

Adora rolled her eyes, “and you, Glimmer, stop wasting your powers on innocent shrubbery.”

”It was a cactus and its thorns were an immediate threat to my person.”

”I strong believe your person would survive a battle with said cactus without powers. One battle trick I like to use is called _stepping around it._ In contrast, I think your person would not survive not being able to teleport out of a surprise attack.”

Glimmer stuck her tongue out at Adora as they continued to trod forward. The sand was endless and the decayed corpses were not inspiring for their confidence. 

“You know,” Bow peered at one of the skulls. It’s white has turned a dusty gray and the bone was thin, cracked. It had endured years of desert, “these bodies are kind of ... old.”

”Don’t say that Bow, that’s rude and they can hear you.”

”Maybe someone put them here as a warning,” Adora looked down to one herself, considering. It might be a pseudo “get out” sign now but it had once been a living, breathing, sentient thing, with a family and friends and dreams and aspirations. It was cruel, how you could turn from person to prop with a well placed slash at the neck and a few years of decay. 

“All I’m saying is... do we really want to employ someone that works here? How much do we know about this person anyways?” Bow shuddered as he watched a scaly green thing crawl past. Jesus. 

Adora continued walking, stiffening only the slightest bit, “she’s an old friend. One from the orphanage and later from the academy. She’s good at this kind of stuff, trust me.”

Bow and Glimmer looked at each other for a quick moment before Glimmer bounded up to Adora’s side and grasped her hand firmly, “We trust you.”

Adora’s previous forced forays into nostalgia had not gone well. They would have sleep overs, Bow and Glimmer offering up stories of escaping palace walls and prancing guards using three apples, a bit of tape and some dirt. In these moments, Adora always seemed to float away, hovering above the periphery, on another planet. When pushed, she gave vague details about a girl, a childhood friend, a lot of green fields and a very strict matron. 

“Thanks,” Adora squeezed back warmly but she couldn’t help but internally question of Glimmer’s hand. For the last few months they were in what Bow had dubbed a “will they won’t they but they totally will” stage where Glimmer would flirt and Adora would respond as best as she could- which was badly. 

Still, Adora appreciated the skin on skin contact that came with this Almost-Romance. It was nice to have random hugs from behind, a touch to the shoulder, on the hand offering rich, steaming hot chocolate when Adora was working too hard and pouring over a 6 inch packet of paperwork. 

Bow sagged behind them like a limp limb. 

“So she’s a bounty hunter?” Glimmer ventured, “how did she turn from ... soldier to .. outlaw. That’s quite the career move.”

”She’s not a criminal. She choose the crimson waste herself,” Adora’s jaw was set, like it was a pain to get anything at all out.

”Because?” Glimmer perused, testing her luck. 

“She just didn’t like Brightmoon much, I guess. To be honest? I don’t know why she left. I suppose I never really knew her very well after all.” And that was true, wasn't it? 

“I’m sure she’ll be very, very glad to see you again.”

Adora gave Glimmer a tired smile. 

* * *

  
To be fair, they lasted than Adora thought they would without being caught. She had assumed that they'd be locked down and out meters away from the hide out, but no they actually made it inside the austere, red cave. For _fiftten minutes._

A woman with scorpion-like hands checked them over, muttering to herself about how good she was at her job, she should totally get a raise for her skills. 

In retrospect, the company hadn't put much effort into making their hideout subtle. The menacing aura had been a bit... gratuitously with the stalactites protruding out of every inch of cave wall, as menacing as real knives. They might as well have put up a "BEWARE" sign at the front entrance. Maybe they had _wanted_ the BFS to enter to make catching them easier. 

"I can't believe we just got _captured,"_ Bow hissed to them, "This is why you don't light up the bad guy's gloomy, sinister cave with your stupid glowy shit. No matter how much you want tp impress someone."

"If it wasn't for my 'stupid, glowy shit' , we would've been impaled on those stupid sharp rocks two minutes in. And you would've been the first to go."

"Not true, Adora is clumsier than I am by at least five points-"

The pitter patter of footsteps encroaching. Soft. Would've sounded like ground water droplets to anyone who wasn't Adora. Her mind flashed back to a thousand different memories. To green fields and a one bedroom apartment and writing letters by candleight. So long ago it felt like a different life. 

"- _that_ easy? Maybe Scorpia _should_ get a raise."

The voice. The sound of fire crackers on wintery nights. Only more sweet. Something like the sound a candy wrapper makes when empty. Adora's skin prickled with a strange mixture of anticipation and anxiety. The later was stronger. Her eyes darted around the dim tunnel like a stressed bee, trying to find something to look at, nonchalant, casual, fuck. Like she hadn't come all the way to see her. 

One two, footsteps louder. Adora inhaled, shit, shit, _shit._ One two, one two, and she was there. 

Catra's face was a blank canvas and Adora struggled to keep hers that way too. Her hair was in a messy ponytail, not much taller, red outfit, she'd always looked so good in red, it made her look like an antagonist but in a really, really sexy villain way. Femme Fatale except very. very lesbian. There was a bandage wound around her tail, looked old and.

"Did you really come all this way to see me? That's pathetic-" Adora's eyes snapped back to Catra's face, to the teasing smirk that Adora would've melted at all those years ago. Except it wasn't all those years ago. But when Catra looked at her properly, caught sight of the Brightmoon HOA badge the amusement slipped off her face like water. Her tenor of her voice grew hard, "Done well for yourself, haven't you captain?"

She snatched up the golden hexagon, eyed it for a minute and pocketed it. Adora ignored it, she had several at home.

"Well, as much as I'd love to give this tender reunion more time," Glimmer began sarcastically, "I must inform you that imprisoning a princess is a crime, punishable by upto fourty-"

A bitter little laugh cut Glimmer off. " _Princess?_ " Catra asked Adora incredulously, "You really have done well for yourself, haven't you, Blondie? I told you that ass kissing habit of yours would get you places. Not enviable places buttttt,"

"We're here on business," Adora spoke suddenly, her eyes moving from the ground to stare straight at Catra, straight past her in fact, looking so hard that her face was a blur. She was overcome with a thrill, a need to be cheap and petty. She didn't want to deal with Catra verbally trampling over her knew life, a life she had worked her finger to the bone to get. She _couldn't,_ "The Queen of Brightmoon is missing. We need your help to find her."

Catras expression changed to something vaguely akin to embarrassed disappointment for a millisecond , as quirk as a lightening bolt and just as devastating before she schooled herself again. Seemed to consider this for a long and fragile moment, her hand clenched, before blurting out, "No. The Unearthers don't work with _princesses._ You'll need to find someone else."

Adora blinked, her mind not really comprehending, "But there is no one else. We-"

"Don't care," Catra turned around, refused to even look back. It was so familiar, her silhouette. Adora had replayed this scene a thousand times. Catra walking away with her head held high, "Scorpia, get them out of here."

* * *

"I'm sorry, guys," Adora repeated for what seemed to be the thirtieth time. Her ball bounced off the wall, forlorn, and rolled dejected to her side before she grabbed it again to begin the miserable cycle all over. 

"We told you, it's fine, you couldn't have known," Bow responded pleasantly enough, adjusting his arrows, although Glimmer herself hadn't really said anything. She seemed to be trapped in an internal soliloquy ever since they'd come back. Which was fair, the idea of a kidnapped (presumably dead) queen-slash-mother and having to take up proverbial monarchial cloak was a very Shakesperean idea. They were missing the outdated lexicon, the ilict relationships and juvenile sex innuendos but that was fine. Their story could live without those. Mostly.

Adora tossed Glimmer the ball, which she caught automatically. 

"Ball for your thoughts?"

Glimmer offered up a weak smile, "Not even going to give me a penny?"

"I would but I kinda lost all my money at the poker game last week."

Bow squinted at her, "Who was so sadistic that they'd drag _you_ of all people to a poker game."

"Uhhhhhh-" A knock on the door and Glimmer was more than ready for the distraction, "Proceed!" 

"There's a group at the gate," Juliet's stoic voice, laced with a bit of confusion, called back, "They're calling themselves the unerathers and they claim they want to help us find the Queen. They're saying they will only speak to Captain Adora."

Well, fuck.

**Author's Note:**

> -AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA


End file.
